I felt I lacked information about the economic impact of the Columbia River Crossing. Light rail was particularly divisive.
The first economic analysis of light rail that I saw was in The Columbian’s June 10 story “Light rail: Blight or bliss?” (too late). Property values (and tax revenues) along the MAX Yellow Line in North Portland went up 2.7 times faster, 50 new businesses opened, and crime actually fell. North Portland reminds me a bit of downtown Vancouver, another economically marginal area.
Where were estimates about the economic impact on downtown Vancouver of the bridge or light rail? Were the bridge high enough for the three upstream businesses, the impact of putting downtown “under the bridge” could have been negative, but as designed, there is every indicator that it would have had a positive impact on business and tax revenues. It appears we will never know.
But we do know that millions of federal dollars will go to other states, and jobs that would have been created by both the project and an improved local business climate will not be realized. Clark County badly needed those jobs.
